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Wednesday, August 13, 2014

EAT: ITALIAN SHOPS RETURNING TO EAST 116TH

East Harlem used to be the largest Italian enclave in the city before becoming El Barrio over 50 years ago and now 116th Street is seeing a change once more. This main crossroad on uptown's east side has become Little Mexico in the past decade but now the thoroughfare known for Central American shops is making way for a couple of Italian eateries. The charming D'amore Wine Bar opened up earlier in the year by Park Avenue and now the old El Paso storefront close to 2nd Avenue has been replaced by Nocciola which specializes in homemade pasta. We have heard great things about D'amore but have not been able to stop by yet and Nocciola looks promising but has a more minimalist interior. Has anyone tried either out yet?

7 comments:

oh yea D'amore is great. Food, service and the owners are great. One of the owners who is originally from Italy even lived in Colombia for many years and had restaurants in Bogotá.The atmosphere of this restaurant is great. Coffee is the best in the area and food is great. It is not pricey at all. The have good selection of wines as well. I just love this place!!!

I love D'amore. The wine list is good and reasonably priced, the atmosphere is comfortable and the food is good. I really enjoy the paninis, which come with a nice side salad. Luigi and Rafael are great hosts.

Coincidentally I dined at Nocciola last night and was SO impressed by the entire experience! I never yelp anything but was dying to give them a review because it was really THAT good (there yelp account has not yet been approved so I will have to wait) The food was to die for. The fresh pasta is beyond words and the customer service was that of an upscale restaurant that you might find in Midtown. I highly recommended this new little gem of a place.

Nocciola is run by the same owners of El Paso, they teamed up with an extraordinary Italian chef and they felt that since they had prior experience with Italian cuisine that they'd reopen as an Italian restaurant. After eating there I'd say it was a brilliant move!

El Paso had a sign up a couple of weeks ago that they were looking for a new spot in the neighborhood. I assumed it was a landlord rent dispute, but that's obv not the case. Looking forward to trying both of these.